An Update: January 4, 2010

Hello Everyone:

It has been some time since we have been together, so I wanted to bring you all up to date.

To begin with, as many of you already know, the Wilmington Housing Authority (WHA) in partnership with Kingswood Community Center (KCC) and Roizman Development, Inc (ROI), have submitted a $22 million grant application/proposal to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The application was submitted on November 17, 2009 and it is expected that we will hear back from HUD sometime this spring.

The total value of what we are calling phase one is somewhere just north of $89 million and includes the demolition of 146 severely distressed public housing units and the construction of a senior mid-rise and dozens of single family homes. A brand-new, state-of-the-art Kingswood Community Center will also be built during phase one of the project. Phase two will consist of the remaining Riverside units being demolished and replaced with a mixture of public housing, Section 8 and affordable homeownership opportunities. The number of units for phase two is still undetermined but it is expected to be slightly more than 300 units.

As a Blueprint Community, Riverside has gone from an idea to something that is magnificent and exciting. The planned construction will be driven by energy conservation measures designed to maximize the conservation of utilities while minimizing the community's carbon footprint. Of course, there are many heroes in this story that precede Blueprint by many years. Bernadette Winston, Executive Director of the Kingswood Community Center has spent the last few decades working tirelessly on behalf of Riverside residents and businesses and much of what is happening now is the result of her commitment to Riverside. Her deputy, Nnamdi Chukwuocha, has logged thousands of hours in service to Riverside's youth by not only working on their behalf with organizations such as East Side Charter School, but by working with them at ground level, holding their hands, listening to their stories, encouraging them and showing them by the example of his own life, an alternative to the violence and disparity that seeks to destroy all of us--young an old alike. He and Bernadette also work directly with the Center's staff, including Nnamdi's twin brother, keeping them motivated to do what some think is the impossible but what these fabulous people know is the only thing they can do.

A primary difference between this effort and others like it has been the positive and critical engagement of Riverside's business owners and managers right from the start. Charlie Allen of Northeast Auto Body went well beyond the call of duty in his unshakeable resolve that Riverside is a community deserving of revitalization. Charlie is one of those rare folks who really do put their money where their mouth is. He is, as we all know now, a force to be reckoned with. Also, Kevin Wilson of Architectural Alliance met with the core team in the days immediately following up to the January Blueprint presentation at the University of Delaware. While not a Riverside business, he freely donated his time, resources and staff to draft a set of renderings that in the mind of both the team and the Riverside community, set our presentation apart from the other eight and was the beginning of the design of our current efforts. Thank goodness he is still with us as our architect.

One of the other shining stars of this effort has been the hard and diligent work of our own Councilwoman Stephanie Bolden who made sure that the City Council and other city agencies signed on to our dream. As a member of the core team, her insight, political acuity and just good old common sense saved the day again and again.

Deborah Jackson-Spence of Senator Ted Kaufman’s staff has been a tireless supporter of both WHA and the Riverside Initiative. Deborah is one of those whose work on behalf of Riverside began many years before Blueprint and was one of the very early vocal supporters of our efforts. Deborah introduced me to the wonderful people at NE Alliance and I have been a part of that organization since. Not only have I been asked to give two presentations to the monthly gathering in Riverside, I have learned so much. For those of you who don’t know, NE Alliance is a conglomeration of organizations that work in and around the Northeast of Wilmington and just might be the best kept secret in the entire state when it comes to community service.

The early support and commitment of our Mayor has also been a critical component of our initiative coming this far. He attended our Holiday celebration in December 2008 where he pledged his support to what the Riverside Initiative was working so hard to accomplish. More than 60 resident stakeholders were present that night along with members from the Riverside business sector, political leaders such as State Senator Margaret Henry and senior staff members from each of Delaware's congressional delegation. Mayor Baker told us how proud he was of us, but when we needed the City of Wilmington to truly step up during the preparation of our HOPE VI application to provide the kind of leverage we needed to make the application have any value at all, we were all truly proud of him and his staff.

There are eight members of the core team: Lynn Buchanan, Stephanie Bolden, Carolyn Martin-Pettaway, Roger Turk, Dr. Will Robinson, Tanya Washington, Irmina Williams and myself. Each team member brought their own skill sets and compassion for this initiative to the table. Tanya Washington probably had the hottest fire in her belly because she actually had grown up in Riverside. If not for her, the City of Wilmington's role in the submission of our HOPE VI application might have went differently. Somehow she managed to keep Riverside in front of everyone despite a crippled economy, dwindling sources of government revenue and skepticism. She singlehandedly turned Bill Montgomery into Riverside's biggest cheerleader. I am proud to call each one of them colleague and I am both thrilled and humbled to call each one of them friend. The quiet steadfastness of Lynn Buchanan; the leadership of Councilwoman Stephanie Bolden; the faith and support of Carolyn Martin-Pettaway; the brilliance of Roger Turk, the total commitment to children by Dr. Will Robinson that wowed us all; the enthusiasm and energy of Tanya Washington; the heart and soul of a social worker combined with the intellect of a realist possessed by Irmina Williams; the interest and commitment to change by Riverside businesses and finally, the energy, commitment and strength of more than 60 community residents is what has truly brought us to this point where the kind of collaboration presented by WHA, KCC and RDI is poised to make community development history.

Certainly the training we received as a Blueprint Community has helped to make the kind of community revitalization that we have all dreamed about for some time a real possibility. As we all stand on the brink of success, probably the most powerful message that has come from the stakeholders are the words of WHA's Executive Director, Frederick S. Purnell, Sr. when he pledged that Riverside would be revitalized "HOPE VI or no HOPE VI." What this means is that given the $22 million grant we can move more rapidly towards community redevelopment. Without the grant, we would move slower, but move we would. For a community that has been struggling with crime, unemployment, violence and distressed housing for a very long time, these words of commitment are more stimulating than almost any government initiative.

Without the support of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh (FHLBPGH), Blueprint Communities would have never happened. Back in March of 2008, when all of us gathered at the University of Delaware (UD) to kick off the Delaware Blueprint Community initiative, several distinguished people spoke of what can happen when a community comes together. UD's President spoke eloquently about the role of his university in this great collaboration of business, community and education. Chris Coons, NCCo County Executive gave a rousing and beautiful speech about what has been accomplished in this country in the past and how we have a responsibility to continue this struggle for community in both the present and the future. I was moved by his speech and gratified that he is my County Executive.

There are no words to describe the impact of Dr Peuquet and Professor Jabbar-Bey. As an old civil rights activist (and I mean old literally) and someone who has more recently organized residents living in Washington, DC project based Section 8 units into a force that would purchase and rehabilitate their apartments, I really thought there was little either one of them could teach me about community activism. Boy was I ever so wrong. I learned more in the ten months we spent with them than in any ten year period prior. It is one thing to raise a lot of ruckus and slap each other on the back about how we managed to make life difficult for the "man." It is quite another to actually accomplish something, to change lives, to help people understand that despite what they have been told or despite what has been almost beaten into them, that they are worthy of better.

Lastly, the one port in the storm, the one reliable and sensible and reasonable force throughout this entire experience has been Dave Buches. I cannot tell you how many times he took me aside, encouraging our team to hang in there, to pay attention, that Riverside was the goal and that the people in our community, while they had themselves been engaged, still relied on us to show the way. That is a tremendous responsibility and it is never too late to learn that lesson.

One of the exercises we had during our training was to establish a website/blog on our project. We did that in Google, but that was, for some reason, the end of it. Well, I have recently been bitten by the blog bug and have begun my own blog on the Delaware News Journal site and on Google. While making that happen on Google, lo and behold, the Riverside Initiative website/blog popped up so I have decided to rev it up and make it one of the ways we communicate with Riverside, Wilmington, Delaware, the country, the world. I have posted two documents, both dealing with our HOPE VI application and I expect to see more people do the same. I will of course, continue to post as well, and will alert you when a new post has been placed on the Riverside Initiative blog.

Thanks again for all of your work. It is my sense that this initiative has more than accurately proved that wonderful geometric axiom....."The whole is equal to the sum of its parts."

Peace,
Eugene